Samsung ranks 2nd in 2018 U.S. patent grants, LG at 5th

Samsung Electronics took second place in U.S. patent grants among global tech giants last year, but the world’s top smartphone and memory chip maker led the pack in terms of active patent families which measures the size of a patent owner`s global portfolio, industry data showed Thursday.

Samsung Electronics received 5,850 U.S. patent grants in 2018, up 13 from 2017, according to the data from IFI Claims Patent Services, a global patent data provider. IBM topped the list with 9,100 grants, up 1 percent from a year ago, safeguarding the top position for 26 straight years.

Samsung was followed by Canon with 3,056 grants and Intel with 2,735 and LG Electronics with 2,474. Other South Korean companies in the list included Samsung Display which ranked 14th with 1,948 grants and Hyundai Motor which came in 19th with 1,369.

Last year, U.S. patent grants totaled 308,853, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier. By country, the U.S. took up the largest share of 46 percent, followed by Japan with 16 percent, South Korea with 6.5 percent, Germany with 5 percent and China 4 percent. China was the only major country to report an on-year increase in the 2018 patent grants. Patent grants received by BOE (17th) and Huawei (16th) showed an increase of 16 percent and 14 percent, respectively, the largest jump among major tech firms in China.

The data also showed Samsung Electronics took the No. 1 position in terms of active patent families with 61,608, nearly double Canon’s 34,905.